About Good Spotting

Good Spotting grew out of a problem we see every day in our own community: people and wildlife are sharing the same spaces, and better tools are needed to support that coexistence.

Our first project focused on tortoises being hit by vehicles. There are warning signs in the area, but we started asking a more basic question: do we actually know where the problem is happening?

Before we can decide where signs, crossings, awareness campaigns or other interventions are needed, we need to understand where tortoises are moving, where incidents are occurring and how those patterns change over time.

That became the idea behind Good Spotting.

By making it simple for residents to report wildlife sightings and incidents, we can build a picture based on real, local data. Over time, that data can identify hotspots, reveal movement patterns and, importantly, help us measure whether the actions we take are actually working.

It can also give local communities and leaders stronger evidence when requesting resources, support or interventions from the City and other organisations.

What began with tortoises is now expanding to include species such as Western Leopard Toads and caracals.

We also saw the potential for the same platform to help with one of the South Peninsula's most visible human-wildlife challenges: baboons.

A community-powered sighting and alert system can allow residents to quickly warn one another when baboons are moving through an area. Earlier warnings give people more time to secure bins, food, pets and homes before a troop arrives.

At the same time, historical sightings can help us better understand how baboons move through our neighbourhoods, where conflict repeatedly occurs and which interventions make a measurable difference.

Why We Exist

Wildlife conservation often starts with good intentions, but good decisions need good information.

Signs, awareness campaigns and interventions are valuable, but without reliable data it can be difficult to know where resources should be focused or whether an intervention has actually improved the situation.

Good Spotting aims to close that gap.

We want to turn thousands of small observations made by ordinary people into useful information for communities, conservation organisations, researchers and decision-makers.

A tortoise crossing a road.

A leopard toad moving through a neighbourhood.

A caracal sighting.

A baboon troop entering a residential area.

Individually, each report is small. Together, they can reveal patterns we would otherwise never see.

Our Goal

Our goal is simple:

Help people and wildlife live alongside one another more safely and successfully.

We want to build practical tools that help communities:

• report wildlife quickly and easily;
• receive useful local wildlife alerts;
• identify movement and conflict hotspots;
• build long-term historical datasets;
• measure whether conservation interventions are working; and
• make better decisions based on evidence rather than guesswork.

Good Spotting isn't about keeping wildlife out of our communities.

It's about understanding the wildlife already living alongside us and using that understanding to coexist better.

Spot it. Report it. Learn from it.